Business in Brief

Tuesday

Oct 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2008 at 1:28 PM

City Sports moves HQ back into the city

BOSTON – City Sports has returned to the city by moving its headquarters in the past several days to a nearly 10,000-square-foot office at 77 North Washington St. in Boston’s North End from Wilmington.

The athletic apparel retailer employs about 40 people at its new corporate office, and it continues to employ about 40 people at its distribution center in Wilmington. The company was last based in Boston in 1996 before moving to North Reading, and later to Wilmington.

City Sports has continued its growth since it was acquired earlier this year by Highland Capital Partners, the Lexington-based private equity firm. City Sports opened its 15th store in Bethesda, Md., last week, and is opening its 16th store in Manhattan in early 2009.

Ex-Massport worker is last defendant sentenced in fraud case

BOSTON – A former Massachusetts Port Authority employee was the last of 20 defendants to be sentenced in the state attorney general’s case involving payroll abuses at the Conley terminal in South Boston.

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office said Francis Biagiotti, 55, of East Boston was sentenced on Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court to one year of probation and a $2,500 fine on charges of fraud in the procurement of government services, false entry in corporate books and conspiracy to commit larceny.

A jury convicted Biagiotti of the charges on Oct. 10. Biagiotti was indicted in 2006 along with 19 other defendants following an investigation into payroll fraud schemes among longshoremen who work at Massport’s Conley terminal. The schemes included improperly giving longshoremen credit toward benefits for hours they didn’t actually work.

Circulation continues to drop for daily newspapers in state

All daily newspapers in Massachusetts reported circulation declines for the past year, with the two major Boston papers seeing declines of roughly 10 percent from a year ago.

Big city papers, including those in this state, generally have been hit harder by the current decline in newspaper readership and advertising. The Boston Globe’s weekday circulation dropped 10.1 percent to nearly 324,000 on Sept. 30, while the Boston Herald’s weekday circulation dropped 9.8 percent to about 167,500.

The Patriot Ledger’s daily circulation fell 4.5 percent. The Enterprise of Brockton fell 5.6 percent, the Cape Cod Times fell 3.2 percent and The Standard-Times of New Bedford fell 3.9 percent. The Sun of Lowell and The Republican of Springfield were the only dailies in the state with drops of less than 1 percent.

Gas prices lower than last year at this time

The state average price for regular, self-serve gasoline has fallen below the average at the same time last year for the first time in 2008, with the past week’s 20-cents-per-gallon decline. AAA Southern New England reported that the average price for regular, self-serve gasoline fell to $2.64 a gallon on Monday, down from $2.84 a gallon a week ago. A year ago at this time, the state average was $2.73 a gallon. Gas prices plunged in the past two months nationwide due to big declines in crude oil prices.

Patriot Ledger staff

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.